BMC likely to ban hoardings with videos, says moving images a distraction

The proposed policy aims to create visually appealing hoardings and enhance the city’s aesthetics with digital signage that offers real-time updates

Mumbai: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will soon come out with a comprehensive policy for administering hoardings in the city. The policy, which is likely to moot a complete ban on hoardings featuring videos, will be made available on social media for suggestions from citizens before it is formally notified.

Mumbai, India – May 28, 2024: A hoarding at Charni Road (W), in Mumbai, India, on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. (Photo by Bhushan Koyande/HT Photo)

The proposed policy aims to create visually appealing hoardings and enhance the city’s aesthetics with digital signage that offers real-time updates and interactive experiences.

The BMC had set up a committee under additional municipal commissioner (city) Ashwini Joshi to prepare the draft. Its members included BMC’s deputy commissioner (special) Kiran Dighavkar, superintendent of license (member secretary) Anil Kate and joint commissioner (traffic) of Mumbai Anil Kumbhare, environmental expert Rakesh Kumar, two members appointed by IIT Bombay, Avjit Maji and Nagendra Rao, and professor at the department of industrial design at IIT Bombay GV Sreekumar.

The committee held a meeting on July 16, with the agenda covering traffic safety, environmental impact, structural stability, approval procedures, technical aspects of digital hoardings, and revenue generation. The traffic police said that digital hoardings featuring videos distracted motorists, following which most members sought a ban on such hoardings. They also spoke about the need to regulate the brightness of digital hoardings, and students are likely to be roped in for a survey for the same. There was some discussion in the meeting on banning hate speech in digital hoardings, but since there was no consensus on the matter, no decision was taken.

Mumbai has 1,025 hoardings on BMC land; while permissions have been given for 83 digital hoardings, the number of digital hoardings present in the city is 67. The numbers of digital hoardings in the city are likely to rise further as many applications for converting flex-based hoardings to digital ones are pending, said BMC officials.

“States like Kerala have already banned flex-based hoardings as they are not bio-degradable and many other states are going to follow suit,” said an official.

The BMC’s policy will also cover advertisements on business premises, skywalks, balloons, and stationery vehicles. The civic body has mooted a minimum distance of 70-100 metres between two hoardings, 30 metres between stationery vans and other advertising material, and 10 feet between hoardings on skywalks and foot over-bridges. Hoardings under high tension electric wires would have to get clearance from the service utility, as per the draft policy.